


Taste of dango

by LesnaVra



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, One Shot, Post-Canon, Sasuke misses Itachi, Uchiha Sasuke-centric, Winter holidays as a background
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:34:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26541493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LesnaVra/pseuds/LesnaVra
Summary: [After the war] Sasuke's back in Konoha. The winter holidays are coming, and Sasuke keeps mourning Itachi.
Relationships: Uchiha Itachi & Uchiha Sasuke
Kudos: 12





	Taste of dango

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Smak dango](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26495260) by [LesnaVra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LesnaVra/pseuds/LesnaVra). 



Kitschy emotionality. Konoha Winter Fair was a true embodiment of it. Colorful plastic decorations, unnecessary trinkets, awfully sweet candies and other useless knick-knacks that would turn into cheesy symbol of remembering, happiness, care, or whatever else people wanted to tell each other on New Year's Day that was to come in two weeks. As if a gift could level down mountains of disappointments, quarrels and betrayals that happened throughout the year. Because of that one Sasuke was sure. People sucked and hurt each other on a daily basis. Well, maybe with a few exceptions... but somehow he couldn't recall anyone (alive) as a good example.  
  
Uchiha Sasuke had been wandering for about an hour in the crowd .The city center of Konoha in winter turned into one big festival. Stalls were spread on both sides of the streets, which curved chaotically and could suddenly turned into a dead end or lead a confused passerby to a completely different place. The atmosphere was typical. Fairs like this took place every year in every city with slightest tourist ambitions and it all happened in accordance with the same scenario. You could see the ridiculous amount of colorful lanterns hung between the stalls, get dizzy by the sweet smell of mulled wine and baked food, lose your hearing because of the children squeaking in front of miserable attractions and experience "local" products that were surprisingly available as "local" in every corner of the country. And people continued to flock here in search for authenticity and unforgettable experiences.  
  
Sasuke allowed himself to be pulled by the crowd to the main square of this stupid fair. It was a little more spacious here, but that didn't make him feel any better. This market was pathetic. And so was the whole village. He was getting more and more angry with himself that he decided to come here. Still, it was a better option than sitting at "home" and listen to Naruto's never-ending shouts. The mere thought about this person made him shiver.  
Or was it because of a particularly cold gust? The winter wind was stronger at the square. It had enough room to scorch and so it swept the garbage from corner to corner, played the bells on the stalls, and plucked at visitors' scarves. Soon it pulled out all the loose strands from Sasuke's ponytail and chased him into a side street where the boy could finally adjust his hairstyle. Itachi had always had such flawless hair, perfectly tied and velvet smooth even during a fight. Nii-san would probably laughed at him with a benign smile, seeing the younger Uchiha trying to imitate his brother again.  
  
It was a very stupid idea to come here. Sasuke was too intelligent not to realize what mechanisms dragged him into the crowd. The awareness left the bitter taste in his mouth. He loathed being such pathetically weak and at the same time he could not resist this inner compulsion to seek contact with people, even as fleeting and false as it was.  
  
He was completely alone. Naruto? Yeah, Sasuke lived in his apartment. He slept on his tatami. And from dawn to dusk he listened to all the rants about his mistakes, both real and alleged (the second group was definitely larger). Naruto's mouth just never shut up. All of it was presented in a awfully hypocritical tone of martyr-like forgiveness and care. Everyone around them was convinced that Naruto showed him great mercy and how ungrateful Sasuke was, daring to feel not ok with the whole situation. Anyway, how could he even start talking to anyone, he, an S-class shinobi with so much on his shoulders. How could he complain about something seemingly as trivial as daily absurd quarrels about nothing, that kept shredding his nerves to pieces just like rasengan had shredded his arm.  
A woman by the stall was haggling for a discount. She looked nice in a red coat, but her voice was a tone too high for a human ear. Pathetic. What was she even doing here, if she was looking for cheap gifts?

  
"What for a young gentleman? What would you like, Sir? " the roasted nut vendor's voice pulled him from his mind. He must have been standing here for a long time, absorbed in the deluge of elusive thoughts. He wasn't going to buy anything, and he was certainly not a gentleman, but the seller might not know it. The darkness blurred his features, and besides, Sasuke was wearing civilian clothing, wrapped in a coat with too short sleeves that his brother had given him. (He found it in Itachi's old room, but he told himself that his brother gave it to him. Nii-san took great care of him, he kept pampering him with necessary clothing and utensils). The district wasn't popular among ninjas, who could recognize him easier. While he obviously didn't care what other people thought of him and ignored their bullying, today he would prefer no one bother him for the mere fact he existed. Hokage formally forgave him, but did nothing to explain him, and the Konoha society was just unable to function without some public enemy number one.  
  
The woman in the red coat apparently managed to get a discount, because a bag with a logo of the candy shop appeared in her hands. She passed him with a silly happy expression on her face. Sasuke wondered who was going to get diabetes this year? Her husband, boyfriend, or maybe innocent children? He stuck his hand deeper into his pocket and moved furiously forward. He would like Itachi to spend holidays with him so much. He'd buy him all the goddamn chocolates at the outrageous price from this damn fair. But he was dead! Dead! By Sasuke's hand!  
  
Sasuke escaped the fair in a worse mood than when he came there. He did not want to go "home" yet and wandered aimlessly in the streets. The area was in a festive mood too, but it was somehow more bearable, more normal. The evening was brightened by tacky decorations, but also by the well-known shop windows and billboard lightings. His legs led him to the conbini where he usually did his shopping. He scraped the money out of his pocket and carefully counted.  
  
One stick of dango on a plastic tray, hideously wrapped in foil, cost as much as a kilogram of rice he would eat the whole week. So this was how much he could afford till the new month. Naruto would likely make a scene again as he would discover that Sasuke had nothing to feed on. Whatever, in the end he would dramatically share his meal with him.  
The cashier looked at him impassively as she was has hammering the code for dango.  
  
For a moment, Sasuke felt he again had a goal, however small it was. It set his feet into well know direction, although he didn't go there often. The farther he moved from the center, the more visible the winter was - more snow on the streets, more trees bending under the frozen clusters. He went to the lands of Uchihas. Just next to the border there was a small roadside temple, actually just a statue of a cat. It was their meeting point, Sasuke waited here for nii-san's return from missions. Sometimes they waited together for ever-late Shisui-nii before they stepped out to explore Konoha, sometimes they left things for one another.  
Vegetation had took rein over the place. The wooden fence had completely decayed and collapsed into the bushes. Random passerby would not even notice the statute from behind the branches.

Sasuke scooped the snow from the cat's head and the pedestal. He clumsily unrolled the Dango from the package and placed it under the figurine.   
  
For a moment he waited for something to happen. His blood was telling him that something was about to take place, that Itachi would emerge from the horizon, returning after a long mission. Or that he himself would feel better.

His thoughts were truly naive beyond belief. But he no longer had control over them, really.

  
Then Sasuke remembered that Itachi had always shared dango with him. The boy crouched down and stared at the sweet with a lump in his throat. So this was how their family meals were going to look like now, he thought, taking one ball in his hand. So this was it for holidays this year.

  
He pushed the ball into his mouth. It tasted terrible - a stuffing dry sweetness. He choked on it for a long time before he could swallow with tears. Dango had long since disappeared in his throat and the tears were still streaming down his face, frost biting his cheeks. Without Itachi, it all didn't make any sense.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> I hinted Sasuke lives with Naruto. In this story the background idea is that Sasuke and Naruto's relationship turned toxic. "Home situation" has a toll on Sasuke, but he can't really move out. I might explore it in further stories someday.


End file.
